Fraud bait: Delivery SMS from ‘IndiaPost’

 Several Calcuttans were receiving text messages purportedly sent from Indiapost that informed them about the arrival of a package and the post’s inability to deliver it because of an incomplete address

Monalisa Chaudhuri, TT, Calcutta, 09.07.24 : A fraudulent text message sent in the name of “Indiapost” — the central government’s mailer system that had been delivering letters and posts over decades — is the latest bait being used by online touts, Kolkata Police said on Monday.

Several Calcuttans were receiving text messages purportedly sent from Indiapost that informed them about the arrival of a package and the post’s inability to deliver it because of an incomplete address. The text message also shares a link for receivers to click and update their address.

A Calcuttan received a similar message on Monday afternoon, which read: “Your package has arrived at the warehouse and we attempted delivery twice but we were unable to due to incomplete address information. Please update your address details within 48 hours, otherwise your package will be returned. Please update the address in the link:https://ind-(link).” After the update is completed we will re-deliver within 24 hours, India Post!”

An officer at the Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar said on Monday that if anyone clicked the link to update the address, the link would seek money from the user and also silently install malware in the smartphone through which the hacker could access the personal details of the user.

“India Post does not send such messages. One should not make the mistake of clicking on such fraudulent links,” said the officer.